My hermy is naked!

[KikiCourtney]

For the past day or so, my crab Apple (the one who keeps molting) is out of her shell! This is the first time she's ever done this. I have like six shells for her to choose from, but she just walks around without one on! Is she okay?! :confused:

[Cornflower]

Go to www.hermit-crabs.com. Look it up on www.google.com and try to find as much information as possible. I've heard you have to boil the shell your crab left and then cool it down with cold water so you don't burn your crab. Then, after it is dry, pick up your crab without the shell and gently put it back in the shell it left. If it crawls out again, why don't you try pushing it GENTLY into the other shells you have for it? If he/she refuses all the shells then, I DON'T KNOW! E-mail FMR!

[Cornflower]

Try to e-mail www.fmrpets.com and ask them for help. Don't forget to cool down the shell okay? I don't think you want to grill your crabs

[KikiCourtney]

ok thanks I will try that!

[Cornflower]

Never happened to my crabs before. Tell me what happens to your crab after you tried what I said. Be careful not to drop your naked crab

[KikiCourtney]

okay I did exactly what hermit-crabs.com said and it's not working! She's barely moving now, it looks like she's dying!
-cries-

[Cornflower]

Not good...

[KikiCourtney]

:( I don't know what to do!

[Cornflower]

Now I don't know what to do.

[Cornflower]

e-mailing fmr

[Cornflower]

No replies yet...

[Cornflower]

What's currently happening to your crab?

[Cornflower]

Not a single reply! I don't think FMR are online on e-mail or something. Not good

[KikiCourtney]

She looks like she's going to die very soon :(

[KikiCourtney]

She still not doing well at all. I even tried gently forcing her into shells, nada.

[Daethian]

FMR will not answer you so don't bother waiting. They disconnected their phone and don't respond to email. FMR is not exactly held in high regard by crabbers.

If you tried using the cup method described on hermit-crabs.com and tried easing your crab into a shell, and it didn't work...there may not be much else you can do. Keep the humidity high and the tank dark and quiet and hope for the best.

[KikiCourtney]

-sobs- Apple just died.

[LilWurm]

I am so sorry. It has happened sometimes where hermies crawl out of their shells simply to die. My hermie, Sugar, did that. There was also a hermie at EarthBound I found stuck in the sponge with no shell on him. I managed to get him into a shell and home before I had to go to work. He put up a good fight, but lost in the end. He had passed by the time I got home. :cry:

There are simply times when hermies understand that they are going to die and there is nothing we can do about it. Almost like hermie suicide, though I don't think that's quite the case. :confused:

Was it a newer hermie? I have times a lot where I get a hermie and a few days later they die unexpectedly. EarthBound's conditions are absolutely horrid, and I think that I simply get them home and cannot take back all the stress and damage done to them. Their humidity is not high enough, and that causes a lot of them to die before I ever get the chance to try to and really save them. It's heartbreaking, but it's reality. :crybucket

There are simply too many people who do not love and respect hermies the way they should. I am always getting in people's faces about hermit crab care. The people at EarthBound disregarded me for the longest time. But now they know that they are doing wrong and that I will not back down until I get results out of them. Next stop, their manager. I'm going to scream my head off when I get ahold of her. She treats those hermies like crap and I'm tired of watching them suffer because of her ignorance. :mad:

I apologize, I have babbled on again. I'm very sorry about Apple. :(

[KikiCourtney]

thank you :(

Yeah, Apple was newish. I got her a month or two ago, i think. I know too many places where hermies are treated terribly, and when I confront the managers about them they completely don't give a crap. It's very sad.

[LilWurm]

Keep at it. Stay on their rearends. Go in there so much that they recognize your face and have your name memorized. That is how it is with me and EarthBound.

Don't ever back down. My Civics teacher always said, "Persistence pays off." And he's right. It does. I kept going in there and complaining and getting on all the employees and telling them that they are not doing this right and I gave them care packets and kept on them.

Now I go in there and I get "Hi. How's it going?" They finally listen to me and what I have to say after all this time. When I give them advice, they take it to heart and stress it to new crab owners. They let me sit in there for hours and give lectures to people who are buying new crabs and have never owned any before. They do not give me any crap of any sort. When I say something and I'm serious, they know to shuttup and hear what I have to say because they know what I'm saying is right and that they are ignorant.

Always keep on top of them. Do not show any signs of giving up. With time and determination, they will begin to respect you and listen to you and what you have to say. The only person I have not yet chewed is their manager. She's next. Their hermies are in little plastic squares without lids, so they retain a lot of damage to their gills and die only a few days after I get them. Sometimes the same night.

Just remember, keep on coming, and don't ever stop until you start getting results. Matter of fact, don't stop then. Once you get results, just push harder. Because at that point you have them where you want them to where they will listen to you and you could probably save thousands of hermies fromm utter despair by forcing the employees to take better care of their hermies.

GO FOR IT! You DO have the power!

[JenHan disease]

poor apple :( thats so sad!
my two darling hermies both died a few weeks ago and so did my friends. Its devestating to find one of your beloved pets dead!
but dont be too sad, you did all you could for the poor little guy.
- hannah